The Fee Fixation and Regulation Committee's jurisdiction is limited to fee regulation and does not extend to mandating the establishment of a trust for private schools.

JUDGMENT :

Sanjeev Kumar, J.

WP(C) No. 2829/2021

1. A private school by the name of “Humanity Public School” run by one Gourav Charak, invokes extraordinary jurisdiction vested in this Court under Article 226 of Constitution of India to throw challenge to an order bearing No. 785-FFRC (FF) of 2021 dated 26.11.2021 [“the impugned order”] passed by Chairperson, Committee for Fixation and Regulation of Fee of Private Schools [“FFRC”]. Vide order of FFRC, impugned in this petition, the school management of the petitioner-School has been directed to constitute a trust for running the school, providing further that till the needful is done by the petitioner and the directions contained in order No. 415/FRRC (FF) of 2021 dated 11.08.2021, are complied with, the management of petitioner-School shall not make any hike in any type of fee.

2. The petitioner is aggrieved and has assailed the impugned order of FFRC primarily on the ground that FFRC constituted under Section 20A of School Education Act, 2002 [“the Act of 2002”] is not competent to issue such directions and that the role and jurisdiction of FFRC is restricted to fixation and regulation of fee of private schools.

3. Mr. Ravinder Gupta, learned AAG appearing for the respondents would submit that the implicit in the power and jurisdiction of FFRC constituted under Section 20A of the Act of 2002 is the jurisdiction and competence to ensure that a private school is validly established in accordance with the provisions of the Act of 2002. He would argue that the FFRC is well within its powers not to entertain the case of a private school for fixation of fee unless such school complies with the requirements laid down in the Act of2002.

4. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material on record, it is necessary to first advert to the relevant provisions of the Act of 2002 and the Rules framed thereunder. Section 20A, which deals with the constitution of Fee Fixation and Regulation Committee of private schools, reads thus:

20A. Constitution of Fee Fixation and Regulation Committee of private schools.- (1) The Government shall constitute a Committee to be known as the Committee for Fixation and Regulation of fee of Private Schools for the purposes of regulating and determining the fee in private schools in the Union territory.

(2) The Committee shall be headed by a Chairperson who has been a Judge of a high Court or a Government Officer who has been a Financial Commissioner of the Union territory or above.

(3) The members of the committee shall be such as may be prescribed by the Government.

(4) The Chairperson may co-opt any other independent person of repute or a representative or a recognised School Association as an expert member, but the total number of members of the Committee shall not exceed five.

5. From a plain reading of Section 20A, it is abundantly clear that a Committee to be constituted by the Government under this Section is only for the purpose of regulating and determining the fee in private schools in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.

6. The term “private school” defined in Section 2(l) means a school established, run or maintained by any educational agency and recognised by the Government. The term “educational agency” is, however, defined in Section 2(f) which reads as under:-

2(f) “educational agency” means any individual, Society, Trust or body of persons registered with the Government and permitted to established, run or maintain any private school, under this Act.

7. It is, thus, evident that an educational agency could be an individual, a society, trust or body of persons registered with the Government and permitted to establish, run or maintain any private school under this Act. From the definition of „educational agency‟, we do not find any embargo put on an individual to establish a private school. The only requirement is that, it must be registered with the Government and permitted to establish, run or maintain the private school under the Act.

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